Be prepared at Boot Camp

A judge at one of Lancashire’s leading business awards has urged firms from across the county to attend a special ‘boot camp’ to help deliver success.

Tony Raynor, managing director of Abbey Telecom, said the workshop held by the Be Inspired Business Awards, the BIBAs, would help applicants to set themselves aside from the rest during the application process.

The awards, dubbed ‘the one they all want to win’, opened its 2016 competition for applications last week and has already received entries for its 18 award categories.

It will host the BIBAs Boot Camp event at the Fylde Coast Office of the North & Western Lancashire Chamber of Commerce on Friday, March 4, starting at 10am.

Mr Raynor (above, left), who leads the Service Business of the Year judging panel, said: “We know that people who have attended the BIBAs Boot Camps in the past have been finalists and winners in recent years.

“This session helps you with everything from making sure you are entering the right category right through to telling a compelling story and impressing the judges.

“Having sat on BIBAs judging panels for a number of years, I know the quality of entries from right across Lancashire will be even higher this year, so any advantage you can get, I would advise an applicant to take it.”

The awards have teamed up with experts from Lancaster University Management School to offer a workshop which will see judges give applicants practical tips on how to impress judges in both applications and at the interview sessions which follow.

It will also offer advice on how to maximise involvement in the awards whether you are shortlisted, a finalist or a winner.

The session is limited to two representatives per company and anyone wishing to attend should send their names, position within the company and telephone number to bibas@lancschamber.co.uk

In 2015, Lytham-based accountancy firm Danbro was named the Business of the Year when the BIBAs handed out its prizes in front of a sell-out crowd at the Blackpool Tower in September.

Social enterprise Jobs Friends and Houses CIC, which works with ex-offenders, won its Most Inspiring Business of the Year prize and individual prizes went to Phil Lawson of Skelmersdale’s Virtue Technologies who won Entrepreneur of the Year and Louise Wilkinson, who runs Nelson-based Lomeshaye Village Day Nursery, who was named Business Woman of the Year,

Notes to Editors:

The BIBAs: The Be Inspired Business Awards, the BIBAs, is Lancashire’s biggest and best business awards.

The awards, dubbed ‘the one they all want to win’, celebrates the achievements of the county’s businesses whether big or small with 18 prizes up for grabs in the 2016 awards which will open for applications at the end of January.

Judges will also select a Most Inspiring Young Person of the Year and a winner for the awards’ lifetime achievement prize, Lancastrian of the Year.

The Most Inspiring Young Person of the Year award will be selected from the nominations put forward by groups which have made successful bids to the BIBAs Foundation, a charitable arm created to inspire enterprise among young people in Lancashire.

The winner will be picked by a panel chaired by Dave Holmes, Manufacturing Operations Director at prize sponsor BAE Systems, which includes current Lancastrian of the Year, Ian Hall.

The BIBAs has become a hallmark for success with its hundreds of former winners using the BIBAs iconic trophy to communicate their excellence to customers and suppliers alike.

For all the latest news on the BIBAs, visit the official awards’ website at www.thebibas.co.uk or follow through its official Twitter account @BIBAs2016.